"Donald Trump" By Gage Skidmore [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Flickr
CV NEWS FEED // Former President Donald Trump called out his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris’ contentious history with American Catholics after she became the first major-party presidential nominee since 1984 to skip a beloved Catholic event.
The Archdiocese of New York’s Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner (“Al Smith Dinner”) raises money for various Catholic charitable organizations that benefit children.
While the dinner is held annually, it receives particular attention during presidential election years when both of the major parties’ candidates attend and take turns making comedic speeches.
Trump – who had addressed the dinner in both 2016 and 2020 – has confirmed his attendance for a third consecutive election year.
“It will be an honor to attend the SOLD OUT 79th ANNUAL AL SMITH DINNER on October 17th in New York,” the 45th president stated on Truth Social. “It will be great to see so many wonderful people there, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan.”
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“We know the Spirit of Al Smith, the first Catholic Nominee of a Major Party, and John F. Kennedy, the FIRST Catholic President, will be in the room with us that night,” Trump added, referring to the Democratic presidential nominees in 1928 and 1960.
“It’s sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend,” Trump wrote.
“I don’t know what she has against our Catholic friends, but it must be a lot, because she certainly hasn’t been very nice to them,” he continued, “in fact, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this Administration.”
“Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined,” Trump stressed.
The Republican nominee wrote in a subsequent post:
In addition to the Democrats’ Cruel War on The Little Sisters of the Poor, Kamala led the way on the UNCONSCIONABLE and UNCONSTITUTIONAL ATTACKS on The Knights of Columbus that amounted to a RELIGIOUS TEST (Very anti-Catholic!) for Justices on the Supreme Court. Also, who can forget the flagrant, in-your-face “TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY” Kamala and Biden hosted at the White House on Easter Sunday (of all days!).
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“Regardless, I will see everyone on October 17th, and we will have a GREAT night for Catholic Charities,” Trump wrote. “It’s sad that Kamala doesn’t care about these good works, but with her History of anti-Catholic actions, she would have a hard time anyway!”
Kaelan Dorr of MAGA Inc., a super PAC backing Trump’s candidacy, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “Harris has repeatedly attacked the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic fraternal organization with over 2 million members and $1.5 billion raised for charity in the past decade.”
He specifically singled out then-Sen. Harris’ 2018 opposition to Trump judicial nominee Brian Buescher, a Knight – which Dorr called a “bigoted campaign.”
In July, CatholicVote President Brian Burch recounted that Harris pressed the Catholic judge “if he knew that the Knights had taken ‘extreme positions’ on life and marriage. ‘Extreme’ as in beliefs held by the Catholic Church itself.”
“Harris then asked if he intended to renounce his membership with the Knights if he was confirmed,” Burch added. “Not only is this a gross form of anti-religious bigotry, it’s also unconstitutional.”
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Dorr noted that also while Harris was a U.S. senator from California, she “sponsored legislation aimed at shutting down charitable Catholic organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor for refusing to conform to radical leftist beliefs on gender identity.”
He also pointed out that the now-presidential nominee backed the pro-LGBTQ “Equality Act, which would force religious institutions, including churches, to compromise their core beliefs or lose their religious rights.”
Furthermore, Dorr indicated that Harris’ apparently anti-Catholic record dated back to before she was elected to the Senate in 2016:
As California attorney general, she got a law passed requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to “promote abortion,”—many of which are Catholic or Christian—undermining their faith-based mission.
In 2015, Kamala Harris used her power as California attorney general to put six Catholic hospitals out of business.
A Pew Research Center poll earlier this month found that Trump is leading Harris by five points among Catholic voters, with 52% of support compared to her 47%.
Among white Catholics in particular, the poll found Trump leading by a landslide margin of 23 points, with 61% to Harris’ 38%.
In recent elections, the candidate who has carried the Catholic vote has almost always won the White House.
Per Edison exit polls, Trump won Catholic voters by four points in 2016 but lost them to now-President Joe Biden by five points in 2020.
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